dial 
angle of the sun or moon. Horizontal dial, a dial the 
plane of which is horizontal. -Inclining dial, inclined 
dial, a dial the plane of which leans forward so that a 
plumb-line dropped from the upper part will fall outside 
the wall. Meridian line on a dial. See meridian. 
Night or nocturnal dial, a dial for showing the time by 
means of the moon's shadow, a rough calculation from 
the moon's age being used. North dial, a direct dial ex- 
posed to the north. Phosphorescent dial, a dial made 
of enameled paper or thin cardboard, and covered with 
varnish or a solution of white wax in turpentine, over which 
is dusted powdered sulphid of barium. Such a dial is lu- 
minous in the dark, so that it can be read without a light. 
It loses its phosphorescence after a time, but this may be 
restored by exposure to sunlight or to the flame of mag- 
nesium-wire. Polar dial, a dial the plane of which passes 
through the pole of the heavens. Such a dial presents the 
peculiarity that its center is at infinity. Portable dial, 
a dial used as a pocket-timepiece. If such a dial is pro- 
vided with a magnetic or solar compass, it shows the time 
on the same principle as the fixed dial ; but if there is no 
such compass, as when such dials were in common use 
there generally was not, the time is only roughly shown 
by the altitude of the sun. Primary dial, a dial whose 
plane is parallel or perpendicular either to the plumb-line 
or to the earth's axis. Quadrantal dial, a portable dial 
in the shape of the quadrant, with different graduated 
circles to be used in different months of the year. Re- 
clining dial, a dial whose plane is not vertical, but leans 
backward so that a plumb-line can be let fall to a point 
on the lower part from a point outside the body on which 
the dial is drawn. Reflecting dial, a dial which marks 
the time by means of a spot of light thrown upon it from 
a mirror. Refracting dial, a dial which uses refracted 
light. Secondary dial, a dial not primary. South 
dial, a direct dial intended to be exposed to the south. 
Tide-dial, an instrument for showing the state of the tide. 
Universal dial, a dial having an adjustable gnomon, 
for use in all latitudes. Vertical dial, a dial whose plane 
is vertical. West dial, a direct dial intended to be ex- 
posed to the west. 
dial (di'al), v. t. ; pret. and pp. dialed or dialled, 
ppr. dialing or dialling. [< dial, re.] 1. To 
measure with or as if with a dial; indicate 
upon or as if upon a dial. 
Hours of that true time which is dialled in heaven. 
Talfourd. 
2. In mining, to survey with the aid of the dial 
or miners' compass, as a mine or underground 
workings. [Eng.] 
dial-bird (di'al-berd), . [< dial, an accom. E. 
form of its native name dahil, q. v., + ftmZ 1 .] 
A bird of the genus Copsichus; a magpie-robin. 
The name is extended to the whole of the genus, from the 
native name of the best-known species, the dahil or dayal 
(Copsichus saularis) of India. There are several species 
of Asia, the East Indies, and Africa. The dial-bird of the 
Seychelles in the Indian ocean, C. seychellarum, is pecu- 
liar to the islands whence it takes its specific name. It 
is about as large as a blackbird, black in color, with large 
white wing-spots. See cut under Copsichus. 
dialect (di'a-lekt), n. [< F. dialecte = Sp. Pg. 
dialeoto = It. dialetto = Q. dialect = D. Dan. 
Sw. dialekt, < L. dialectos or dialectus, < Gr. 
<5<d/lEKTOf, discourse, discussion, common lan- 
guage or talk, speech, way of talking, language 
of a country, esp. the dialect of a particular 
district, < SiateytaOat, discourse, discuss, argue, 
use a dialect or language, act. 6iaf.kyuv, dis- 
tinguish, choose between, < Sia, between, + 
teyuv, choose, speak. Cf. dialogue, from the 
same source.] 1. Language; speech; mode 
of speech; manner of speaking. 
O sacred Dialect ! in thee the names 
Of Men, Towns, Countries register their fames 
In brief abridgements. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., Babylon. 
If the conferring of a kindness did not bind the person 
upon whom it was conferred to the returns of gratitude, 
why, in the universal dialect of the world, are kindnesses 
still called obligations? South. 
His style is a dialect between the familiarity of talking 
and writing, and his letter such as you cannot distinguish 
whether print or manuscript. Steele, Tatler, No. 178. 
2. One of a number of related modes of speech, 
regarded as descended from a common origi- 
nal ; a language viewed in its relation to other 
languages of the same kindred; the idiom of a 
district or class, differing from that of other 
districts or classes. Thus, the Scotch is a dialect of 
English ; English is a dialect of the Germanic or Teutonic 
group ; Germanic speech is an Aryan or Indo-European 
dialect. Of the various dialects of Greek Attic, Ionic, 
Doric, Molic, and so on the Attic finally became the 
common dialect of all cultivated Greeks. Every literary 
language is originally one of a body of related dialects, to 
which favoring circumstances have given vogue and gen- 
eral acceptance. 
The Dane was converted ; he sank into the general mass 
of Englishmen ; his tongue became simply one of the local 
dialects of English. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 152. 
3. The idiom of a locality or class, as distin- 
guished from the generally accepted literary 
language, or speech of educated people. 4f. 
Dialectic ; logic. 
Logique, otherwise caalled dialect (for the! are bothe 
one) is an art to trie the corne from the chatfe, the trueth 
from every falshod. Sir T. Wilson, Rule of Reason (1553). 
.ffiolie dialect, Attic dialect, common dialect, cre- 
ole dialect, etc. See the adjectives. Doric dialect. 
See Doric, n. Hellenic dialect. See common dialect, 
1590 
under comitwn. ~ Syn. 1 to 3. Idiom, Diction, etc. (see 
language), tongue, phraseology. 
dialectt (di'a-lekt), v. t. [< dialect, .] To make 
dialectal. 
By corruption of speech they false dialect and misse- 
souud it. Sctshe, Lenten Stuffe (Harl. Misc., VI. 166). 
dialectal (dl-a-lek'tal), a. [< dialect, n., + -al.~] 
Of or belonging to a dialect ; relating to or of 
the nature of a dialect : as, ' cauld' is a dialectal 
(Scotch) form of 'cold'; the dialectal varieties 
of Italian. 
dialectally (dl-a-lek'tal-i), adv. In dialect ; as 
a dialect. 
Common dialectally in Cumberland and Westmoreland. 
Encyc. Brit., XXII. 888. 
dialectic (dl-a-lek'tik), a. and n. [< L. dialec- 
ticits. <! Gr. diaACKTiKot;, belonging to disputation, 
< Sia^eKTOf, discourse, discussion, disputation 
(the sense 'belonging to a dialect' is modern, < 
dialect + -ic): see dialect."] I. a. 1. Relat- 
ing to the art of reasoning about probabilities ; 
pertaining to scholastic disputation. Kantians 
sometimes use the word in the sense of per- 
taining to false argumentation. 
Master of the dialectick sciences, so able to guide our 
reason, assist in the discovery of truth, and fix the under- 
standing in possession of it. 
Ellis, Knowledge of Diviue Things, p. 337. 
2. Of or pertaining to a dialect or dialects; 
dialectal. 
Even languages of so limited area as the Basque in the 
Pyrenees, as some of the tongues in the Caucasus, have 
their well-marked dialectic forms. 
Whitney, Life and Growth of Lang., p. 176. 
Practically they [English and Dutch] have become two 
languages. They have passed the stage of dialectic differ- 
ence. They are for practical purposes mutually unintel- 
ligible. J?. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 76. 
Also dialectical. 
Dialectic Methodists. See Methodist. 
II. re. [= F. dialectique = Sp. dialectica = 
Pg. dialectica = It. dialettica = G. Dan. Sw. 
dialektik, < L. dialectica, < Gr. diakeKTmr/ (sc. 
T%V}/), the dialectic art, the art of discussion, 
logical debate, also the logic of probabilities, 
fern, of StaAenTiKoe, belonging to disputation: 
see I.] 1. Logic, or a branch of logic ; specifi- 
cally, the art of critical examination into the 
truth of an opinion ; inductive logic applied to 
philosophy; the logic of probable reasoning; 
the art of discussion and of disputation ; logic 
applied to rhetoric and refutation. The invention 
of the art of dialectic is attributed to Zeno the Eleatic, 
whose arguments against motion are examples of the origi- 
nal meaning of the Greek word. The famous dialectic of 
Socrates and Plato, their chief instrument of philosophi- 
cal inquiry, was a conversational discussion with induc- 
tive appeals to special instances. Dialectic was limited by 
Aristotle to logic accommodated to the uses of the rhetori- 
cian, appealing only to general belief, but not to first prin- 
ciples. The Stoics, who probablyintroduced the term logic, 
divided that art into rhetoric and dialectic, the former be- 
ing the art of continuous discourse, the latter that of dis- 
cussion with an interlocutor. Cicero and other Latin writ- 
ers, influenced by Stoic doctrine, understand by dialectic 
" the art of discussing well" (ars bene disserendi). It thus 
became the name of that branch of the triviurn of the Ro- 
man schools which we call logic, and retained that mean- 
ing throughout the middle ages. Hence, in all the earlier 
English literature, it is the synonym of logic, differing 
from that word only by a more distinct suggestion of the 
idea of disputation. Modern logicians have frequently 
restricted it to the doctrines of the Topics and Sophistical 
Eleuchi, or to the former alone. It has also been used as 
a synonym of syllogistic. Kant named the constructive 
part of his Transcendental Logic transcendental analytic, 
and the destructive part transcendental dialectic. For 
the sake of this phrase, he makes dialectic, in general, the 
theory of fallacies. According to Hegel, each concept in 
the development of thought by a primitive necessity de- 
velops its own diametrical opposite, and to this reaction 
of thought against itself, regarded not as final, but as 
subject to a subsequent reconcilement in a higher order 
of thought, he gave the name of dialectic. 
There hath not been, to my understanding, sufficiently 
inquired and handled the true limits and use of reason in 
spiritual things, as a kind of divine dialectic. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 364. 
We termed Dialectic in general a logic of appearance. 
This does not signify a doctrine of probability ; for proba- 
bility is truth, only cognized upon insufficient grounds, 
and though the information it gives us is imperfect, it is 
not therefore deceitful. Kant, tr. by Meiklejohn. 
St Paul, though bred in the dialectic of the Greek 
schools, came late by his conversion to the new faith, and 
remained a Jew to the last. Alcott, Table-Talk, p. 99. 
It remains true that the value of the Dialectic which 
asks and gives such an account of ideal good as at once 
justifies and limits obedience to practical authorities is 
conditional upon its finding in the individual a well-formed 
habitual morality. 
T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 328. 
2. Skill in disputation. Also dialectics. 
dialectical (dl-a-lek'ti-kal), a. 1. Same as dia- 
lectic, 1. 
A dialectical syllogism is nothing more than a syllogism 
generating opinion, or any other assent besides science. 
Buryersdicius, tr. by a Gentleman. 
dialing 
The flow of wit, the flash of repartee, and the dialectical 
brilliancy of some of the most famous 5;onnc scenes in 
Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. 
A. W. Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit., I. 159. 
I know very well that you like to amuse yourself with 
dialectical gymnastics, but I do not care about talking for 
talking's sake, and have no talent for badinage. 
Mivart, Nature and Thought, p. 25. 
Intellectual courage and a certain dialectical skill are 
united with a surprising ignorance of the complexity of 
the problems attacked. E. Dowden, Shelley, I. 159, 
2. Same as dialectic, 2. 
Schultens supposes that we have the book of Job as it 
was penned at first without any translations, as at that 
time the Hebrew and Arabick language was the sarno, with 
a small dialectical variation only. 
Hodges, On Job, Preliminary Discourse. 
Dr. Johnson was scarcely at all aware of the authenti- 
city of laicientdialectical words, and therefore seldom gives 
them any place in his dictionary. 
Pegge, Anecdotes of the Eng. Lang. 
Dialectical disputation, syllogism, etc. See the 
nouns. 
dialectically (di-a-lek'ti-kal-i), adv. 1. Logi- 
cally. 
Theory you may not flud dialectically sustained, but you 
are sure to glean facts which will be useful to your own 
generalizations. Quarterly Rev., CXXVI. 342. 
The evolution of thought is the evolution of being a 
maxim dialectically good but practically weak. 
H. Calderwood, New Princeton Rev., III. 27. 
2. In the manner of a dialect ; in regard to dia- 
lect. 
Two coins, differing dialectically in their inscriptions, 
were found in the Tigris in 1S18, and are now in the Brit- 
ish Museum. Encyc. Brit., XVII. 641. 
dialectician (dFa-lek-tish'an), . [= F. dia- 
lectieien; as dialectic + -Jan.] One skilled in 
dialectic; a logician; a master of the art of 
discussion and disputation. 
This was a logic which required no subtle dialectician to 
point and enforce. De Quincey, Essenes, iii. 
Let us see if doctors or dialecticians 
Will dare to dispute my definitions. 
Longfellow, Golden Legend, vi. 
dialecticism (di-a-lek'ti-sizm), . [< dialectic 
+ -ism.'] Dialectal speech or influence ; the 
characteristics or nature of dialect ; a dialectal 
word or expression. 
Dialecticium, phoneticisra, ellipsis, and so forth. 
The Academy, Jan. 14, 1888, p. 27. 
dialectics (di-a-lek'tiks), . [PI. of dialectic: 
see -ics.~\ Same as dialectic, 2. 
dialectologer (di"a-lek-toro-jer), . [< dialec- 
tology + -er 1 .] One versed in or engaged in 
the study of dialectology. 
The good custom has been established of giving them 
[popular tales] in the vernacular of the narrators. And in 
this way the compilers themselves have been forced to be- 
come dialectologers. 
Quoted by J. A. H. Murray, in 8th Ann. Add. to 
[Philol. Soc. 
dialectqlogical (di-a-lek-to-loj'i-kal), a. Of or 
pertaining to dialectology: as,'a dialectological 
introduction. 
dialectologist (dl"a-lek-tol'o-jist), n. [< dia- 
lectology + -ist.] A dialectologer. 
The dialectologitit must be fastidious indeed who would 
not be satisfied with this extraordinary mass of material, 
where he can only study both form and phonetics for al- 
most every shading of every dialect belonging to the group. 
Amer. Jour. Philol, IV. 490. 
dialectology (di^a-lek-toro-ji), n. [< Gr. Sid- 
ASKTOS, a dialect, + -'Aoyia,\ Myttv, speak: see 
-ology.'] That branch of philology which ex- 
amines the nature and relations of dialects. 
The paramount importance of dialectology for the proper 
discrimination and classification of any set of language- 
elements is now generally recognized, and constitutes the 
most striking difference between the leading drift of lan- 
guage-study to-day and ten to fifteen years ago. 
Amer. Jour. Philol., IV. 486. 
dialectort (di'a-lek-tor), n. [Irreg. (as if L.) 
< dialect.] One skilled in dialectics ; a dialec- 
tician. Imp. Diet. 
dialer, dialler (di'al-er), .. In mining, one who 
uses a dial. See dial, 8. 
dialing, dialling (di'al-ing), n. [Verbal n. of 
dial, v.] The art of constructing dials; the 
science which explains the principles of mea- 
suring time by the sun-dial ; gnomonics. 
This hypothesis may be tolerated in physics, as it is not 
necessary in the art of dialling or navigation to mention 
the true system or earth's motion. 
Bp. Berkeley, Siris, 285. 
Dialling, sometimes called gnoraonics, is a branch of ap- 
plied mathematics which treats of the construction of sun- 
dials : that is, of those instruments, either fixed or porta- 
ble, which determine the divisions of the day by the mo- 
tion of the shadow of some object on which the sun's rays 
fall. Encyc. Brit,, VII. 153. 
Dialing lines or scale, graduated lines placed on rulers, 
or the edges of quadrants and other instruments, to fa- 
cilitate the construction of dials. Dialing sphere, an 
instrument made of brass, with several semicircles sliding 
